KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 18): Standard Chartered Malaysia has appointed Mak Joon Nien, who started his career as the bank's graduate trainee back in 1997, as the bank’s managing director and chief executive officer, effective Thursday (Aug 18).

Mak is the bank's first Malaysian CEO. He is taking the reins from Abrar A Anwar, who has held the post since 2017. Abrar will remain as a board member of the bank until year end, supporting several regional initiatives within the bank.

Mak will report to Patrick Lee, the cluster CEO of Singapore and ASEAN markets, the bank said in a statement.

“The bank takes great pride in having Mak as the bank’s first Malaysian CEO. Mak commenced his 25-year career as a graduate trainee with Standard Chartered Malaysia in 1997. He brings a diverse depth of banking knowledge, having held several positions in our regional merger and acquisition and leveraged finance businesses in Singapore.

“Over the past five years, Mak led the coverage of CCIB in Malaysia, and transformed the business through building a world-class team and developed a fully client-centric strategy to deliver greater scale and resilience,” said Standard Chartered Malaysia.

Succeeding Mak as the head of client coverage CCIB Malaysia is Patricia Wong, who will be double-hatting as the regional head of global subsidiaries, Asean.

According to Standard Chartered Malaysia, Wong, also a Malaysian, has accumulated extensive experience in corporate banking across its network, including China, Malaysia and Qatar.

Lee said Mak and Wong’s appointments demonstrate the bank’s strong succession planning to build an effective and sustainable leadership pipeline of local talent across its network.

“I would also like to express my appreciation to Abrar for his significant contributions in Malaysia over the last five years. The steady growth trajectory of the franchise is a testament to Abrar’s strong leadership. We wish him well in all his future endeavours,” Lee said.